There is absolutely no way to know whether the 2020 NFL season, released Thursday evening, will come to fruition to any degree. The hope is there, of course, but the complications brought about by the coronavirus pandemic make predicting anything impossible.
But there’s one thing we do know: By starting the 2020 season with divisional games in some instances, and going with a more “normal” schedule in others, the league is betting on certainty to a great degree. As longtime NFL reporter John Clayton said this week, and confirmed to Touchdown Wire on Wednesday, there were league discussions regarding putting all the out-of-conference games in the first month of the season, then the in-conference games, and then the divisional matchups. The reasoning behind this concept was obvious: If the NFL had to truncate its schedule on the front side for any COVID-19-related reason, the out-of-conference games would mean the least from a purely competitive standpoint. This is why the league has scheduled divisional games in the final month of the year in recent times.
But in this case, the league is taking a bold and sure stance by scheduling many of those crucial divisional games right up front. Now, were the season to be shortened, the league could turn around and put those games at the end of the season, and one imagines there are projected schedules that allow for this, but now, the NFL is clearly saying, “Remain calm! All is well!”
Whether the league ends up like Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House remains to be seen. To be sure, there’s a lot we don’t know.
The Super Bowl champion Chiefs start their march to their title defense against the Texans in the season opener, and then, they travel to Los Angeles to meet the Chargers, their AFC West rival, in Week 2.
Here's how we'll open the season! pic.twitter.com/JC5FDiYpg9
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) May 7, 2020
The Patriots face the Dolphins in Week 1, so they get the AFC East right up front. But the Seahawks don’t face an NFC West opponent until Week 7, when they welcome the Cardinals to CenturyLink field. And so firth.
Recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose state holds three of the NFL’s 32 teams, said that “it’s difficult to imagine a stadium that filled until we have immunity, a vaccine. It’s difficult for me to imagine what the leagues do when one or two of their key personnel are tested positive. Do they quarantine the rest of the team if an offensive lineman is practicing with a defensive lineman, and they are both tested positive? What happens to the rest of the line, what happens for the game coming up next weekend? It’s inconceivable to me that that’s not a likely scenario, so it’s a very challenging question you’re asking.”
Newsom’s questions take the scenarios beyond the hypothetical idea of the relative safety involved in games played in empty stadiums. Even then, you’re dealing with full rosters, coaching staffs, officiating crews, television and radio crews, catering crews, and everyone else who would make even crowdless games possible.
And for those California teams and their Week 1 games, the 49ers start their season against the Cardinals (divisional), the Rams take on the Cowboys (in-conference), and the Chargers have the Bengals. So, there’s no rhyme or reason to this — no specific up-front plan in case of early cancellations.
This week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell released a memo outlining protocols for teams opening their facilities to players, and the processes beyond.
“The first phase would involve a limited number of non-player personnel – initially 50 percent of your non-player employees (up to a total of 75) on any single day unless state or local regulations require a lower number,” Goodell’s statement read. “Clubs would decide which employees could return to the facility and when once facilities reopen. No players would be permitted in the facility except to continue a course of therapy and rehabilitation that was underway when facilities were initially closed.”
“While these protocols have been carefully developed and reflect best practices, they can also be adapted and supplemented to ensure compliance with any state and local public health requirements. Clubs should take steps to have these protocols in place by Friday, May 15 in anticipation of being advised when club facilities will formally reopen.
“We are actively working on the next phase of reopening, which will involve both greater numbers of staff and players as well. We are actively working with the NFLPA on the protocols that would apply to player access to facilities and expect to have those protocols developed fairly soon.”
Even then, the NFL will have to deal with the fact that different states are practicing wildly different stay-at-home protocols. It would be far more equitable and easier (not to mention a great deal safer) if the people running Georgia and Florida were as cautious as the people running Washington and California, but that’s not where we are. So, even when team facilities open and teams start to edge back to the concepts of any kinds of pre-season practices, the league will also have to deal with the disparity in caution from state to state. This is when the “National” in “National Football League” presents quite the headache.
So, the NFL has extended itself into the realms of the certain in a time where very little can be categorized as such. We’ll have to see how that plays out.